194 PET BIRDS Of BENGAL 



dishes. It seizes a shell between its bills 

 and flies to a stone or rock on which, 

 as on an anvil, it batters the thing into 

 fragments and then picks out the animal 

 within piecemeal. The regular *tap, taps' 

 of the operation can be heard from a dis- 

 tance. The smaller shells instead of beinor 

 hammered on stones, are broken open by 

 blows from its stout beaks. The piles of 

 broken shells often seen on and around 

 boulders and stones by the side of hill-streams 

 are generally the relics of many a such 

 merry feast. It is so enterprising a bird 

 that it sometimes departs from the custom 

 of its tribe and turns a fisher. The lively 

 shrimps become the objects of its special 

 attention. Dashing into the shallow water 

 at the edgre of a stream or in a rock -bound 

 pool, it snaps up an unwilling individual, 

 lands with it on a stone and swallows it 

 after pecking out its animation. Sitting on 

 a torrent-girdled boulder it always picks off 

 water insects, when bigger game is not 

 handy. Not unusually, the bird may be 



